We live squeezed in between two schools. One is a primary school for kids between the ages of 6 and 12, and the other is a pre-school for the young ones and is at the sametime a daycare centre. All in all, when I work from home I always work in a concert of kids voices. That took some getting used to as I always lived in the centre of town surrounded by streetnoise and traffic noise. But now I am used to it I couldn't live without thise happy voices. And at the end of summer it always makes me laugh to see obvious relieved parents take their kids back to school after the 6 week break of having them home. Have your kids gone back to school yet? Maybe you'll enjoy these 5 free sewing patterns.

I am such a fan of these reusable lunch bags! If you even consider how many plastic lunch bags the average family throws out every year, you probably get chills allover. You can buy reusable lunch bags and there are some pretty hip looking ones out there, but with this easy I Heart Naptime tutorial you can make a bunch of reusable lunch bags in no time.

I like those notebooks with rings. They remind me of my first day at highschool. I spent the entire summer holiday preparing for that day, collecting the perfect stash of notebooks, pens and pencil bags. And after one week? All my notebooks were covered with scribbles from my newly made friends. That's how we rolled in high school. I would've been more careful with a pretty fabric covered note book like thise one. Tutorial (in Dutch) and photo are by Elisanna.

Years ago I made two of these drawstring backpacks for my nephews and recently my sis in law told me that the bags are still alive and kicking and often used. The little boy of a friend in Australia also has a bag like this and he carried it all through preschool, even carrying his favorite blankie. The great part about my drawstring backpack tutorial is that you can just mix and match different types of fabric, or you can pick some solid colored fabrics and iron applications. Such fun!

Remember those hairy trolls, that were hip in the 90's? Well, I had those on the back of my pencil. May they never come back into fashion! These toppers are far cuter and quick and easy to make. Piccie and free tutorial by Molly Moo.

I had a simple drinking beaker when I went to preschool. One that always leaked, to matter what. That's why my mum started to give me those cartons, and I would always lose the straw. Kids today have it easy I tell you. They can take their non-leaking bottles in bottle bags like this one. Pink Chalk Studio made a great tutorial.

I don't sew but these are cute projects. I really like the pencil toppers and the notebook cover. I don't have my girls use reusable bags but they do use containers. On field trips, I let them use Ziplocs so they're not weighed down by everything. I find it interesting how the Netherlands has primary school up to 12 years of age. In the Bay Area, it is mostly ages 5-10 for elementary level, then 11-13 for middle school, and then 14-17 for high school. Here where we moved, it's still the old school way where elementary school is kindergarten to 6th grade and then junior high of 7th & 8th.